Search This Blog

Edith's Streets

This blog records notes about London (and Greater London) streets - what the buildings are, what the background is. These pages have been compiled over many years and from many sources - its not intended to copy from other people's work.Each post represents a square on the Ordnance Survey grid -and the vast majority of information is culled from map based source material - Ordnance Survey, A/Z, etc.

On some inner city squares only a quarter of each square is done because of the volume of material involved

Please add your comments and corrections - I am sure there are lots of mistakes - and my idea is to build up a correct record interactively

Red- it is (hopefully) there nowBlue - its interesting but its goneNo colour, same as the text - don't know. needs to be verified

The pond is the Decoy and was a duck decoy
built for a manor house owned by the abbey of Westminster. Artificial channels
were dug and narrowed into pipes with a net at the end. Dogs called pipers
would chase the ducks until they were trapped. There were only 200 of these in
the country.

Bridge Lane

Carmelite
Monastery. This was built for a formal
order of nuns some of whom had come to Britain in the late 19th.This Monastery was founded in 1908 for
sisters of the Primitive rule who had previously been at Isleworth. This was an
enclosed contemplative order. The buildings were designed by D. Powell of
Sinnott, Sinnott and Powel with two storeys in brick set back from the road
behind a tall brick boundary wall with iron gates. Near the entrance was a
brick house and the walls enclosed gardens. The main building has four blocks
round a courtyard with a bell tower in one corner. The Monastery was used as a
Mass centre by local Catholics. The sisters made an income from baking mass
breads and also from printing greeting cards and gift tags. The nuns moved out
in 2007 and the site was sold for redevelopment.

83/85 Etz Chaim Yeshiva. The organisation moved here in
1948 coming from Whitechapel

54 The
Bridge. The Bridge Christian Fellowship was founded in 1911
as Temple Fortune Gospel Hall in the fields of Decoy Farm. It became the Open
Brethren Assembly known as Bridge Lane Chapel. They are now a self governing
meeting of Christians who look at the Bible in its Jewish context and have
links to the Messianic movement

Crusaders
Chapel. Urban saints, started in 1914

Bridge Lane
Beth Hanedrash Synagogue. This opened in 1948.
It grew out of a Minyan started in 1948 by Rabbi Ehrentreu in his house at 85
Bridge Lane and then took over 83. They began to make overtures to the Ebenezer
Baptist Chapel which they bought and moved into. The synagogue has been
extended with additional land and the building named "Zichron
Kedoshim" and they have added the Eshel Avrohom Eliezer Hall which is used
as a second Beth Hamedrash.

3 Hand
car wash. Opened in 1963 as one of the earliest hand car washes in London.Interesting looking building.

Bridge Way

Service area and garages at the back of
Finchley Road

Childs Way

Garden Suburb Infant School. Built as part
of the garden suburb with generous playing fields.

Garden Suburb Junior School. Built as part
of the garden suburb with generous playing fields.

Cranbourne Gardens

St Mary and Archangel Michael church is a Coptic
Orthodox church. It was opened by H. H. Pope Shenouda III in 1996. The church
was Anglican and named after St Barnabas. It was built in 1915 as a temporary
building and church hall. It was designed by J. S. Alder. The existing building
dates from 1932 by architect Ernest Shearman and part rebuilt again in 1962 bomb damage. It was
closed in 1994.

Finchley Road

Created
after an Act of Parliament of 1826, and built up only in the 20th.The Temple Fortune area
has shopping parades, with arcades facing Finchley Road, detailed by Unwin's
assistant A. J. Penty as part of Hampstead Garden Suburb.

Birkbeck Court. On the site of tge Finchley Odeon. Built
1985 by Architech, with a tower which remembers the demolished club house inn Willifield
Green.

Odeon Cinema. The
Orpheum Theatre opened on in 1930 following a lot of heart searchings from the
proponents of Hampstead Garden Suburb. It was built for an independent operator
by Yates, Cooke & Darbyshire. It had a Compton 3Manual organ. The
proscenium was 35 feet wide, the stage 40 feet deep, there were ten dressing
rooms and a café. In 1932 it was taken over by Associated British Cinemas and in 1934 by the County Cinemas chain. Who were, in turn, taken over by Oscar
Deutsch’s Odeon Theatres Ltd. in 1937. It was re-named Odeon in 1945. The stage
was used more than normal for a cinema and this included the Ralph Reader Gang
Show as an annual event – and it was redecorated in 1972 when the queen came to
see the show. It closed in 1974 and demolished in 1982, and replaced by flats.

790-800 Arcade
House.Originally included a tearoom built for Hampstead
Garden Suburb by Porter and Union. It had
gabled ends carried over the pavement as arcades supported on stone piers. It is
in brick with a mock timber-frame above the shops.

802-818 Temple Fortune House.Similar to Arcade House

1069
Metropolitan Police Station, 19l6 by J.D. Butler.

1117 Royal
Oak. Plaque on a shop in memory of the pub

1011
Kisharon Centre. Day Centre for Jewish people with learning difficulties

1023
Grove Inn

Golders Green Road

243 The Swan. An old inn rebuilt in the early 20th
and which serves Hungarian food.

290 Prince Albert,
decoratively neo-Tudor. It became a Harvester pub and has now been demolished.

314 Pillar-box by A. Handyside & Co.
Ltd. Derby

210 The Lido Picture House was the first Atmospheric
style cinema in Britain – it was an Egyptian Atmospheric style – and designed
by Major W.J. King. It opened in 1928 for Carreras Cinemas Ltd and was sold in
1929 to Savoy Cinemas Ltd., who became the ABC chain. It had a fully working
stage and three dressing rooms. There was A Christie 2Manual/8Rank theatre
organ fixed in the orchestra pit and a café. It was closed in 1957 and the classical
Egyptian columns on the facade and the auditorium were removed by C.J. Foster.
It re-opened in 1957 called the ABC. In the late 1960’s the ‘Luxury Lounge’ was
opened with new seats in the stalls, a carpet and no balcony. It closed in 1977
and was converted into three screens. It was taken over by Cannon Cinemas Ltd.
in 1986, who closed it in 1987 and it was demolished soon after. Residential
housing for the elderly is now on the site.

Hampstead Way

Garden Suburb Gallery in summerhouse which
was originally in the garden behind Arcade Court.

Princes Park. The park was laid out in 1923
on land specially purchased for it. It has mature oak trees bordering Oakfields
Road and there is a woodland area which pre-dates housing development. This has
a wild service tree and an old crab apple. The park has rose beds near the
entrance; a mock-Tudor toilet block with an arch over the path leading to a
circular bed and the original park gates remain. There is play equipment,
tennis courts and other sports facilities